Screen doors used with recreational vehicles, campers and trailers are designed to attach to the inside of a solid security door. The fastener connecting the doors together is usually located in the central portion of the door with the handle and locking mechanisms for the security door. Since it is desirable to open and close either door independently of the other, a sliding panel in the midsection of the screen door, like the one illustrated in FIG. 1, typically provides access to the fastener. There, the screen door may be disconnected from the solid door.
To separate the doors, one must slide open the panel release the latch to the solid door and then unlatch or push open the screen. This makes it impossible to carry anything through the doorjamb without first opening the doors because only one hand may be free while doing so. Another problem is that it's easy to forget to slide the panel closed after separating the doors, and insects may enter as a result. Like many prior screen door latches with too many mechanical parts, the sliding panel is also subject to wear and eventual failure.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide an improved latch device for a separating the screen door from the solid one. It is also desirable to be able to open the screen door hands free. It would also be novel if the latch device had few moving parts.